Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

Something’s Gotta Give: Astronomical Health Costs May Be Driving Industry To Breaking Point

Modern Healthcare looks at how the sky-high cost of medical care is putting an escalating pressure on providers to offer better quality treatment for less.

Modern Healthcare:
The Transformation Imperative
One year of healthcare spending can buy 15 iPhones. Or, it can buy over 3,000 gallons of milk. Or, if you want to look at it in relative terms, U.S. healthcare spending, which in 2015 hit nearly $10,000 for every person in the country, was 29% higher than the next most expensive country, Luxembourg. (Arndt and Barkholz, 4/11)

In other national health care news —

The Hill:
FDA, Industry Fear Wave Of Medical-Device Hacks
Regulators and medical-device-makers are bracing for an expected barrage of hacking attacks even as legal and technical uncertainties leave them in uncharted territory. Tens of millions of electronic health records have been compromised in recent years, a number that is growing and, some say, underreported. (Harper, 4/10)

The New York Times:
Patients Prescribed Shelter And Medication Are Wary Of Trump Cuts
For eight months, Jamal Brown’s body shook, so violently that he lost consciousness and ended up in the hospital more than 30 times. Though only in his 30s, his face drooped, his arms and legs often felt numb, and he was overcome with the anxiety of being a homeless drug addict trying to get clean in Camden, N.J. Then, last July, as he lay in a hospital bed after his third stroke, a representative of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers came to his bedside and suggested a different kind of treatment for his illnesses: a federal housing voucher. (Alcindor, 4/10)

The Washington Post:
The Federal Panel That Opposed Prostate Cancer Screening Just Changed Its Mind
An influential federal task force has dropped its controversial opposition to routine screening for prostate cancer and now says that men between the ages of 55 and 69 should discuss the test’s potential benefits and harms with their doctors and make decisions based on their own “values and preferences.” “The decision about whether to be screened for prostate cancer should be an individual one,” the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said in a draft recommendation issued Tuesday. (McGinley, 4/11)

Morning Consult:
Lawmakers Propose Emergency Response Fund For Pandemics
Citing warnings from senior Obama administration officials, lawmakers from both parties are calling on Congress to establish a dedicated funding source to combat infectious disease outbreaks, according to a letter released Monday. The fund, which 21 lawmakers requested in a letter to senior House appropriators, would appropriate $300 million to help the Trump administration “contain and eradicate future infectious disease epidemics.” (Reid, 4/10)

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